257 Whitechapel Road

c.1881 rebuilding after a fire, extended back 1936, further rebuilding c.1975, restored c.2012

257 Whitechapel Road
Contributed by Survey of London on Nov. 17, 2017

The site of 255–259 Whitechapel Road was developed or redeveloped around 1675 when a 499-year manorial lease was granted. There are still buildings of a humble early scale here, perhaps with early nineteenth-century origins, though little old fabric appears to survive. Occupants of No. 257 have included Matthew Abley, an oil and colour man, around 1840. There was reconstruction after a fire in 1881. The building was extended back in 1936, and further rebuilding took place around 1975. The façade’s brickwork was re-exposed around 2012.1


  1. London Metropolitan Archives, District Surveyors Returns: Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives, Building Control file 15530: Post Office Directories 

255-259 Whitechapel Road in 2016
Contributed by Derek Kendall

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